A  MINIATURE 

^  encyclopedia  of  infor¬ 
mation  in  regard  to  Malaysia. 
Intended  for  pastors,  Cen¬ 
tenary  workers  and  others 
who  have  use  for  a  compact 
reference  work  from  which 
may  be  quickly  obtained  sig¬ 
nificant  facts  for  incorporation 
into  missionary  addresses. 


FILE  THIS  WHERE  YOU 
CAN  FIND  IT 


MALAYSIA 


Talking  Points 


LOCATION  AND  SIZE 


Malaysia  welcomes  the  immigrant  of  the  East¬ 
ern  world.  Although  she  cannot  boast  of  an 
ancient  civilization  or  a  homogeneous  people, 
with  her  amazing  riches  of  land  and  sea  she  is  a 
new  world  power  coming  into  being. 

Q 

The  Malay  Peninsula  in  southeastern  Asia 
together  with  the  most  wonderful  throw  of  islands 
in  the  world,  stretching  to  the  south  and  east 
from  its  tip,  make  up  Malaysia. 

There  are  over  three  and  one-half  times  as 
many  people  in  Java  as  in  the  state  of  New  York, 
which  has  about  the  same  area,  yet  Java  could 
support  many  millions  more. 

RESOURCES  S  S 

Malaysia  could  maintain  ten  times  its  present 
population. 

!■) 

MacMillan  Brown,  in  a  recent  book  on  the 
Dutch  East  Indies,  claims  that  Malaysia  could 
furnish  a  meal  ticket  for  the  entire  world. 


More  than  one-half  the  world’s  supply  of  tin 
comes  from  the  Malay  peninsula. 


The  Peninsula  is  also  the  leading  country  in  the 
production  of  cultivated  rubber. 

0 

When  cold  storage  killed  the  spice  trade  of  the 
East  Indies,  two  missionaries  taught  the  natives 
to  plant  cocoanuts  and  sell  the  dried  meat,  so 
that  copra  supplanted  spice  as  an  important 

article  of  export.  _ 

0 

The  wealth  of  Malaysia  attracts  about  500,0x20 
immigrants  every  year  from  southern  China  and 
southern  India. 

0  0 

,  PEOPLES  AND  COMMERCE 

The  Chinese  become  the  merchants,  and  much 
of  the  business  of  the  archipelago  is  in  their 
hands.  The  Indians  are  interested  chiefly  in 
agriculture.  ^ 

A  Chinese  boy  apprenticed  to  a  photographer 
in  a  Malayasian  town  watched  the  work  of  his 
indolent  master,  and  then  one  day  when  an 
Englishman  came  during  the  proprietor’s  absence, 
he  volunteered  to  develop  the  pictures  himself. 
He  did — ^and  kept  the  money.  Other  chances 
soon  gave  him  the  capital  for  a  business  of  his 
own,  and  he  opened  a  small  shop  across  the 
street.  The  instance  is  typical  of  the  way  the 
Chinese  are  getting  ahead  of  the  lazy  Malay. 

0 

The  true  Malay  has  some  civilization  but  little 

ambition.  „ 

0 

The  “wild  man  of  Borneo”  still  exists  in  the 
form  of  the  savage  Dyak,  who  depends  upon 


3 


throwing  stones  into  the  water,  or  killing  young 
pigs  to  protect  him  from  evil  spirits. 

m 

"I  heie  are  as  many  languages  spoken  among 
the  one  hundred  different  peoples  of  the  Malay 
race  as  there  are  in  Europe. 

Q 

Sixty-nine  languages  and  dialects  are  employed 
in  Singapore  alone. 

□ 

I  his  meeting  place  of  the  East  and  West — - 
Singapore — is  the  strategic  point  in  Malaysia. 

Q 

It  is  probably  the  most  paradoxical,  picturesque 
and  cosmopolitan  community  in  the  world. 

Q 

More  Chinese  live  here  than  in  any  other  city 
in  the  world  outside  of  China. 

Q 

Singapore  is  the  third  port  of  the  Orient,  and 
even  before  the  war  surpassed  Liverpool’s  yearly 
shipping  record  by  1,060,000  tons. 

0 

European  and  allied  races  own  or  control  the 
big  business  of  the  city. 

0 

Singapore  is  sometimes  called  the  wickedest 
city  in  the  world.  It  is  an  open  port — nothing  is 
dutiable  except  opium  and  spirits — and  it  is  an 
open  city  with  many  saloons,  opium  joints  and 
evil  resorts. 


4 


SANITATION 


i  Sanitation  is  unknown  in  large  areas  of 

*  Malaysia,  and  medical  facilities  are  inadequate. 

•  0 
} 

T  A  large  percentage  of  the  Javanese  are  victims 

Jof  disease — tuberculosis,  syphilis,  hookworm  and 
eye  trouble  are  most  common. 

!  0 

^  Often  Dutch  doctors  will  not  touch  an  operative 
i  case  for  less  than  one  month’s  salary  of  the 
f  patient.  g 

) 

i  d'he  Methodists  have  a  hospital  in  Java — the 
I  only  one  in  Malaysia — and  a  doctor  in  West 

j  Borneo.  _ 

>  0 

I 

The  Dutch  Government  has  offered  to  pay 
1  three-fourths  of  the  cost  of  building  hospitals  and 
■  to  provide  for  their  qpkeep  if  the  Methodist 
\  mission  will  furnish  the  doctors  and  nurses. 

I  0  0 

(  EDUCATION 

1  Surpassing  the  need  for  hospitals  is  that  for 
1  schools.  ^ 


A  circle  around  Singapore  with  a  radius  of  6oo 
miles  would  take  in  a  population  of  over  40,000,- 
000  people,  yet  in  that  area  there  is  no  school  of 
college  grade.  q 

Probably  about  five  per  cent  of  the  native 
Malay  men  can  read  and  write,  not  more  than 
one  per  cent  of  the  women. 


5 


Two-thirds  of  all  the  scholars  in  the  schools  are 
Chinese. 


0 


The  usual  type  of  Malay  school  is  a  hoax.  It 
is  conducted  by  a  Moslem  who  managed  to  learn 
the  Arabic  alphabet  and  to  recite,  without 
understanding,  parts  of  the  Koran.  This  entitled 
him  to  visit  Mecca,  ffpm  whence  he  returns  a 
sacred  personage  in  the  eyes  of  the  ignorant 
Malays.  He  profits  by  this  superstition  and 
thereafter  does  nothing  but  extract  large  fees 
from  the  natives  for  hisiso-called  schooling. 

0 

The  most  popular  grammar  of  the  Malay 
lang.uage,  and  the  only  complete  English-Malay 
dictionary,  was  written  by  Dr.  W.  G.  Shella- 
bear,  for  twenty-five  years  a  missionary  in  Malay¬ 
sia  and  probably  the  foremost  Malay  scholar. 

0 

The  Anglo-Chinese  School,  founded  by  Bishop 
W.  F.  Oldham  when  fcfe  Went  as  a  pioneer  Metho¬ 
dist  missionary  to  Singapore,  is  now  the  largest 
educational  institution  in  the  Far  Fast,  outside 
of  Japan. 

Now  even  the  Dyaks  are  asking  for  schools,  and 
the  Government  has  agreed  to  erect  buildings  if 
the  Missions  will  supply  native  teachers. 

'0 

The  same  offer,  however,  has  been  made  to 
the  Arabs,  who  will  se.ze  the  opportunity  to 
extend  Mohammedanism,  if  Christians  do  not 
respond  first. 


6 


RELIGION 


It  is  estimated  that  there  are  50,ooo,ocx» 
Mohammedans  in  the  archipelago,  practically  all 
native  Malays. 

0 


With  a  population  of  306,000  Singapore — the 
radiating  center  of  Malaysia — has  only  three 
Methodist  churches. 

Q 

The  Methodists  are  the  only  American  mission¬ 
aries  in  Malaysia. 

Q 

The  migratory  character  of  the  population  is 
responsible  for  the  fact  that  after  thirty-one  years 
the  Church  showed  a  membership  of  only  2,897. 
A  congregation  may  have  a  membership  of  fifty 
one  year  and  only  two  the  next. 


Q 

Probably  not  more  than  one-fourth  of  the 
expenses  of  the  Malaysia  Mission  has  been  sup¬ 
plied  by  the  home  treasury,  for  th^i|stitutions 
are  practically  self-supporting.  IJ^^Hethodist 
Mission  is  now  raising  on  the  field  ^^^■U.ars  for 
every  one  dollar  it  receives  from 


7 


Published  by 

^TKe  Centenary  Conrmission 
of  tKe  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church 

150  Fifth  Avenue 
New  York 
1919 


